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Original poster

Anyone ever felt depressed driving through somewhere?

255 replies

beddingwedding · 07/05/2022 10:18

It was so odd!

I drove through the centre of somewhere yesterday at around 7.30pm.

I got this strange feeling, like a strong depressive state and low mood. It just felt really off! I have never felt like this anywhere in my life. The whole place 'just felt wrong'. And do you know what? I can't tell you why, I've no idea

I use to live in a rough part of east London. It's nothing like that. It just felt eerie

OP posts:
BertieBotts · 07/05/2022 20:39

I get it a bit in London but I think that's just me not being keen on cities. Don't mind visiting London but I don't think I'd want to live there, or in any big city.

Reading through these has made me remember my feelings about Mannheim in Germany. I've been there three times, twice by train to the city centre, it was ok, bit concrete and boring, reminded me of Coventry. But then we took DS2 to the public part of the John Deere factory for his second birthday because he was obsessed with tractors, and the whole time we were within the city I felt this awful vibe, just dark and depressing. At one point we were driving through an industrial estate and I swear you could hear clanking and grim sounds from a slaughterhouse/meat factory. (Totally hypocritical of me as I eat meat and would rather not think about how it's produced). Then after the tractor bit we went into this burger king that was the most depressing fast food place ever. It was about five months into Corona and none of the QR code apps had been invented yet so you were still having to write down your details on paper forms and put them into a little box. Well this box was completely overflowing so you could tell nobody had ever emptied it or bothered to sort the forms out at all. I ended up leaving half my food as I didn't trust the hygiene. Such a crappy place.

(Tractor factory was lovely though except for the play room being closed)

Original poster
beddingwedding · 07/05/2022 20:40

SingingSands · 07/05/2022 19:33

Had to spend a day in Luton once. It was the most depressing town centre I've ever visited.

Come on! It isn't that bad Grin just a bit grey with not many shops

OP posts:
Original poster
beddingwedding · 07/05/2022 20:41

Autienotnaughtie · 07/05/2022 17:44

Milton Keynes strange place

Yes. Even driving towards the big MK shopping centre. It's a really strange drive up

OP posts:
Chesneyhawkes1 · 07/05/2022 20:59

@beddingwedding sounds like Midland Road in Bedford. I walk down it a lot when I'm at work!

Apairofbrowneyes · 07/05/2022 21:00

Sutton bridge

BangingOn · 07/05/2022 21:07

Cauliflowersqueeze · 07/05/2022 14:54

There used to be fencing by a field on the M40 which said “why do I do this everyday?” and that used to depress me a bit! I didn’t even drive there every day at all but felt sad for all those who did and hated their lives.

I miss that graffiti, it used to make me smile in a grim way.

8timesPerWeek · 07/05/2022 21:09

Hollyhocksarenotmessy · 07/05/2022 12:45

A part of Kent, I think on Sheerness. Not in a woo way but it was such an odd bleak marsh landscape with an odd little metal bridge and I remember thinking it defined the word 'godforsaken'. Not a picturesque Marsh, just mud and ditches and disused industrial buildings.

And then we ended up in a dead mining village where my then partner was singing at a social club. 9 women to every man and one told me the mining had killed off most of the men young. 1 lady kept requesting a Barry White song because everytime she listens to him, she has an orgasm, which her friends confirmed! 1 lady kept doing sexy hippy dancing right in front of my ex, asked him to stay for the night and invited me over too when he politely said no as he had a girlfriend. She kept chatting him up and doing this really cringy dancing.

It is funny in retrospect but so depressing at the time. There's a whole village of sex-starved women trapped in a shit hole.

Was the dead mining village on the Isle of Sheppey/Sheerness? I know there were coal mines in Kent , near Canterbury though.
TBH, The Isle of Sheppey is known as a weird place anyway.

plominoagain · 07/05/2022 21:12

I’m amazed that no one has mentioned the Fens yet . I drive through them most nights and they don’t worry me , but my brother will only drive up to visit in daylight , and apparently they spook a lot of people .

Fedupsequin · 07/05/2022 21:16

@beddingwedding was it Clophill?I don’t know if it was because that’s where we all went to be scared as teenagers but it still scares me now!

dubyalass · 07/05/2022 21:20

Dumfries. Stayed there overnight on the last payday before Christmas. The whole place felt threatening, shitfaced people everywhere with an atmosphere that could have tipped from drunken argy-bargy to a mass brawl at any moment. I scuttled out for a takeaway and back to my B&B as quickly as I could. It had some beautiful houses but I wouldn’t go back. Galloway forest was a spooky place too: dark, empty and eerie like conifer forests often are.

ClaudiusTheGod · 07/05/2022 21:28

Snake Pass, not Snakes Pass, and it was only supposition that Brady killed some tramps there. It’s not the same area as where Hindley and Brady buried their known victims.

Snorkellingaround · 07/05/2022 21:29

Torbay creeps me out!

TopCatsTopHat · 07/05/2022 21:44

My old home town is very depressing to me now. Not in an eerie way but in a sad way. It was a good town with a strong community culture where children felt safe and kindness was never far away. Now it is a hollow wreck, people are guarded and suspicious of each other, drugs are dealt openly in the shopping centre, drivers and pedestrians are rude and almost all that was good about it has closed or left.
There are pockets of the previous good humour in those that haven't left and still carry that past within themselves, but it's well hidden and many would never even suspect it used to be a nice place to be.
Makes me so sad. I don't live there now but my parents still do, so I visit and wish all that goodness was still there, it was a lovely place full of strong humble people, not the hopeless and defeated . 🙁

Fritilleries · 07/05/2022 21:49

Blackpool. The minute I walked out of the station I wanted to go home. Grim.

Googlecanthelpme · 07/05/2022 21:56

Yeah Gateshead and the surrounding areas.
God it’s depressing.

Also some of the pit villages around Durham, it’s really hilly in parts and you’ve just got these random “villages” - which are actually just one long road in the middle of nowhere - made up of small terraces and the occasional boarded up shop.

re PP mentioning Dagenham- I grew up in a nearby town in the 90s and Dagenham Heathway gave me nightmares. I hated it - I had friends with boyfriends there and we’d trek over on the District Line. Just fucking horrible. Hated it.
Other parts of Dagenham not so bad but Heathway - shudder

userxx · 07/05/2022 22:00

ClaudiusTheGod · 07/05/2022 21:28

Snake Pass, not Snakes Pass, and it was only supposition that Brady killed some tramps there. It’s not the same area as where Hindley and Brady buried their known victims.

It's bleak.

OldWivesTale · 07/05/2022 22:05

Plymouth gives me the creeps - and I'm from Stoke-on-Trent so that's saying something.

Nitgel · 07/05/2022 22:06

lapasion · 07/05/2022 12:07

Wasn’t Clophill was it? That’s near Bedford and is seriously creepy. Graves were desecrated there in the 60s and there were all sorts of rumours about satanism and stuff like that. I don’t believe in woo but it’s admittedly a creepy place.

There are some really sad areas of Bedford. Some of it has really gone to shit which is a shame.

Show quote history

I watched a cheap horror about that !

mackthepony · 07/05/2022 22:10

That whole area around Bacup /Waterfoot / Stacksstead

Lesperance · 07/05/2022 22:13

@TargusEasting you're right, concrete isn't the right word for Cinderford. I just feels depressed and low level. I guess the thread is about illogical feelings about places, mine really is illogical.

1000yellowdaisies · 07/05/2022 22:16

Glodwick in Oldham. In fact most of Oldham. Not creepy as such but absolutely grim and thoroughly depressing. I dont think the whole town has a single redeeming feature i always drive through for work and get a sad and depressed feeling just looking out.

Up North there are lots of old mill towns that are run down but they usually have a certain charm and some are lovely.. but Oldham urgh

tokyotea · 07/05/2022 22:23

Driving past Stonehenge made me feel really weird and anxious. Out of the UK, Sarajevo felt extremely melancholy.. Very palpable in the air to both DH and I. We stayed a week and I couldn't wait to leave. It was an interesting place and very beautiful, however I just felt quite sad the whole time.

Thehonestybox · 07/05/2022 22:24

Yep... Luton, Milton Keynes, Grimsby, Bradford, Washington, Leicester, Stoke on Trent... Skegness!!

Wintersgirl · 07/05/2022 22:26

The difference in atmosphere between East and West Sussex is staggering, East Sussex feels suffocating and eerily creepy, some of the villages have an odd vibe, so much so that you can tell instantly when you've crossed the border in to West Sussex, the mood lifts instantly and you feel you can breathe again...weird

CPL593H · 07/05/2022 22:32

Always comes up but Glastonbury. I was there twice, aged 10 and 12ish so early/mid 70s, before it became World Capital of Woo to the extent it is now. The Abbey was fine but the town and especially the Tor I absolutely hated, stayed in the car while everyone else duly trekked up it. I knew nothing about what had happened to the poor old Abbot during the Reformation then, just felt something was very "off" and couldn't wait to leave. I can usually pootle happily around places that seem to creep others out and think I'm generally as sensitive to atmosphere as a bollard.

Also dislike the flat bits (lots) of Lincolnshire but that is purely landscape.